tl20000918-000 "T Monday www.thetowerlight.com 0 Wirer Published twice-weekly by students of Towson University 9/18/00 Cook Library enters digital age 3 McCourt tells tales at Towson T Cl\ &IC CNN"" 11 Hog helps Tigers sack Bears, 31-7 17 Fordyce sells tix, talks baseball 21 Departments News Nation 6 A&E // Sound Bites 12 In a Theater Near You.13 Sports 19 Fast Break /9 Athlete of the Week 23 Op/Ed O Fans show up in droves for Morgan State rivalry. 4,817 attend football home-opener, but many fans wonder if students will continue to come out Adam S. Reisinger The Towerlight Hoping for more student involvement on campus this year, Towson made a big push to get students to the first home football game of the year, Saturday against cross-town rival Morgan State. And while Tiger fans � and the usual Morgan contingent � filled Minnegan Stadium to the tune of 4,817 people, it won't be known until Towson returns home to play Colgate Sept. 30 whether the school is truly behind the football team. ""In the home-opener the stands are full of people, but we'll find out in two weeks who the real Towson fans are,"" sen-ior Bo Dunlap said. Other Tiger fans echoed Dunlap's sentiments, openly questioning whether Towson fans would be able to fill 5,000 seats without a rivalry or home-opener to fall back on. ""There's always a good turnout for the first home game,"" sophomore sports man-agement major Russ Singer said. ""It'll be a good test at our next home game to see what the turnout is."" Attendance at the game was actually down from the last time the two teams faced off at Minnegan, two years ago. That game the Tigers' 1998 season-opener, was played at night and televised by WM AR-TV. It drew 8,056 people, a Minnegan Stadium record. See FANS, page 4 Jonathan Smith The Towerlight Tiger fans tailgated before Towson's 31-7 win over Morgan State Saturday. 4,817 people attended the Tigers' home-opener, but fans wondered if the crowds would continue when the Tigers return home in two weeks. Towson hoping for more funding Mike Morris The Towerlight Towson's legislative liaison Frank Principe is keeping his fingers crossed that the University System of Maryland (USM) will grant Towson the funding increase it's requesting in the fiscal year 2002 budget. ""Because of a tight labor mar-ket, and because of the fact that there's a huge shortage of mate-rials, a lot of the costs of some of our projects have increased quite dramatically,"" Principe said. Over the summer, University President Dr. Hoke L. Smith requested to the USM Board of Regents an increase in funding for the 7800 York Road Building renovation. In addition, he requested money previously allocated for the Center for the Arts addition and renovation, as well as the continued expansion and reno-vation of the Minnegan Stadium Sports Complex. Also, long-term plans were discussed for the construction of a new Center for Learning and Technology to replace Lida Lee Tall, and a College of Health Professions Building. The University estimates the College of Health Professions Building would cost $24 million to construct, while the USM is only recommending $19.3 mil-lion for the project. After the USM Board of Regents deliberates the costs associated with the University's projects they will make recom-mendations and submit their budget request to the Department of Budget and Management, a state agency that will reach its final decision in late November or the begin-ning of December. Gov. Parris Glendening will submit his budget to the General Assembly in January and the legislature will ultimately decide on the fate of the funding by next April. ""We're [Towson officials] kind of spectators to all of this and everybody sits around Set FUNDING, page .1 Today High 79 Low 54 Tuesday High 79 Low 60 Wednesday High 82 Low 59 Thursday High 79 Low 52 "
